Daddy, Come Home
by IrishEyesAreSmiling
Summary: Harry is about to partake in the final battle, and in case he dies, his daughter Carolyn will have the power to murder the Dark Lord. Harry must overcome Ron's hatred, Ginny's love, and his only daughter's cry to never leave him to save them all. Sad!


**I usually don't write short stories when Harry is older but it came to me in a spur of the moment to get certain ideas down. Hope you enjoy!**

School had been over for three years. Harry, now twenty, had survived the years at Hogwarts, but he was still in danger. Voldemort had not been defeated. He hid well and now both worlds were going to clash. The good versus the evil. The battle was occurring the next day, but Harry was prepared. He had trained religiously for this, and now it was here.

"Harry," Remus said quietly. "You know what this means, don't you? You know what needs to be done."

He rubbed his forehead hard. "Yeah."

"You were compelled by the Order to do what you and Ginny did, Harry. I realize that it angered you and made it seem like Ginny was being used. But listen; if something happens to you, Carolyn has your blood. She can grow with your power."

Harry glared at the floor. "Why does everyone tell me this everyday? For three years! The whole time Ginny was pregnant I couldn't look her in the eye because she had no choice, and neither did I."

Remus stiffened in his chair. "Ginny understood the circumstances. I know Ron had difficulty comprehending the need, but it had to be done. Mrs. Weasley did not reject you. No one rejected Carolyn."

Harry slouched farther down in the chair. "So you expect me to tell my three year-old daughter that I might not be coming home?"

Remus sat in an uncomfortable silence. Harry sighed deeply and not a word was spoken for a brief moment.

"I've spoken to Ginny," muttered Remus. "She knows that we are leaving tomorrow morning. I am sure the others do as well."

A knock at the door disrupted the conversation further.

"Yes?" called Lupin.

It opened slowly and Ginny's face peeked from behind. "Dinner's ready if you two are hungry."

"Great, I have been wondering when it would be. Harry, that will be all. Prepare for tomorrow."

He rose to his feet and met her at the door. Her eyes were filling up with tears. Harry tuned his gaze away as he felt his own doing the same. She took his hand and pulled him behind her in the direction of the kitchen. Neither said a word. He wanted to say words of comfort to her. The pain she was enduring burned deep inside his heart.

From the hallway Harry could hear the explosive laughter from the Weasley twins. He realized that if e wanted to say something, he'd better do it then.

"Ginny."

He couldn't say more. Without warning she appeared to have lost all her willpower. Harry found himself shoved against the wall with Ginny smothering him with passionate kisses. She pushed hard against him and he felt her tremble in silent sobs.

Ginny broke away from his lips and buried her face into his chest. "I don't want you to leave. I don't want to be alone."

Harry embraced her warmly and kissed the top of her head. "I will try and come back, I promise. Carolyn needs you here. Watch her carefully, you know how adventurous she is."

"I will."

"And Ginny," he whispered. "If I don't come back, please don't let her forget me."

Her arms tightened around him. Harry pulled her away. "Let's eat now."

The moment they entered Ron gave a vile glare at Harry before returning to his plate. Harry frowned sadly and Mrs. Weasley pretended not to notice.

"I will get your plate. Carolyn heard you were coming down so she is playing Hide and Seek." She put her hand by her mouth and whispered with a wink, "She's in the cupboard."

Harry smiled and paced the room. "Where's Carolyn? I can't find her!"

A giggle came from his left. He opened one door. "Nope." Another, "Not here!" The giggles became more excited.

"How about here?" He threw it open and a little girl with curly black hair and blue eyes screamed. "I found you!"

Carolyn squealed and jumped into his arms. Memories came back to him as she hugged his shoulders. He remembered the days when she was growing up how he tried to so hard to avoid her. He didn't want to pain her if he had died. Buy Harry couldn't bring himself to do it because at the exact moment she was placed in his arms he loved her so much. To do that would be so cruel.

Harry carried the girl to the dinner table as she talked.

"Daddy, today me and Mummy drew pictures and I drew one of you and me riding you boomstick."

Harry laughed. "My boomstick?"

Ginny chuckled as she seated herself. Harry sat beside her as Carolyn sat in his lap. Ron stared with rancor until Harry met his eyes. Then he turned beck to eating again. It made him sad to see his friend despise him so.

At dinner he was lost in thought. He tried to make it the best for it being the last one, at least for a while, but he couldn't concentrate. A heavy pull in his chest dragged him down.

"What's wrong, Daddy?"

Harry blinked. "What? Oh, noting, CareBear."

Carolyn snuggled against him and rubbed her eyes. Ginny brushed through her hair. "Looks like someone needs to go to bed."

"No!" She cried as she buried her face into his neck.

"Come on, time for night-night."

"No!" she shrieked again. Harry clenched his hands tight around her arms and replied in a demanding voice, "It is time for bed, Carolyn, you know that. I want you to go with Mummy."

The girl curled into a ball and whimpered, "Can you tuck me in?"

Harry picked her up and carried her upstairs. He held her more tightly that he had ever before. Her tiny body grasped in his arms increased his sadness. Emotion erupted in his chest and painful sobs rocked his shoulders. He continued down the hallway with the sleeping child and felt so terrible about everything.

Harry dropped Carolyn gently into her small teddy bear bed and picked up the purple Care Bear stuffed animal into his arms. He knwlt down and kissed his daughter on the forehead. It was strange to think that he would ever survive to have one of his own. He remembered thinking about it during dull History of Magic classes and prayed that it would happen. He just never thought about having the privilege and risk being there for his child in its life. As he stoke her hair and tiny hand he could not help but wonder if it would be the last time he saw her.

Someone came from behind and put their hands on his shoulders. "Why do you torure yourself like this?" asked Ginny.

Harry shrugged. He tried to suppress his sobs but they rushed out like a storm. Harry laid down his head and wept.

"Please don't cry. Do anything, just don't cry."

That night Ginny rested in his arms, holding on to him for dear life. "What are you going to say to her?"

"I don't want to say anything. I'm leaving before she wakes up."

Ginny sighed. "And how do you expect me to explain this to her when you're not home?"

"I don't know. I don't want to see her cry, but I don't want her to grow up without a Dad either."

Ginny raised herself to her elbow. "You're going to come back. Carolyn and I will be waiting for you."

Harry did not smile. She smoothed his bangs and whispered into his ear, "One more time."

He was shocked to hear her say that. He was under the impression she would refuse since before she was feeling used. "If you want."

Ginny put his hand on her. "I do."

The sun hsone through the curtains as Harry looked around the room one more time. He had his wand in his pocket and his invisibility Cloak under his arm. Carolyn ws still sleeping. He watched her a moment before turning hhis back and walking downstairs to the front door.

Mrs. Wealsey embraced him tightly as she whispered words of encouragement. Harry remembered the past when he would be in her arms for petty reasons she thought earned a hug. Now he couldn't bear to see her. It seemed as if it took every fiber in her body not to explode in bitter tears.

Ginny came forward and kissed him briefly. "Come back, you hear? I love you, Harry."

He nodded silently. His nervous stare came upon Ron to see if he would finally speak to him. Just one word. Just one fucking word. But Ron retreated his gaze to the dirt without a second glance and said nothing.

"Come, Harry," Remus said at the black car. "We need to go now."

Harry quickly pivoted and brushed past them toward the man. He could hear Ginny scold Ron in a tight voice, "Ron, he's your friend! What if this is the last time you see him?"

Harry didn't care anymore. He lost his friend years ago to a stupid mistake that he had to do. That was all that broke them apart: he HAD to do it. Why couldn't Ron understand?

Remus took his cloak. "All set?"

"DADDY!"

Harry spun around and saw Carolyn on the front porch in her blue pajamas carrying her purple Care Bear. "Where are you going?"

He felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. He saw the dead trees of Fall release their dry leaves across her bare feet. It was freezing and yet she stood on the wet wood with those damn innocent eyes that tore his heart. Her face was confused, shocked and fearful. What could he do?

Harry averted his eyes and faced the car to open the car door. Carolyn screamed and ran towards him, wrapping her arms tightly around his legs.

"Don't go away, Daddy!"

He pulled her off of him. "Stay here."

"But you said that you loved me, Daddy!"

That did it. Harry winced painfully and fought the lump in his throat. "You know I love you, Carolyn. You'll always be my little Care Bear, okay?"

She shook her head and pulled on his shoulders as he kneeled. "No! Daddy, please!"

Harry stood up and pushed her towards the others standing in their fear. "Stay with Mummy."

Carolyn screamed bloody murder and waved her arms wildly. Tears dropped out of her eyes like rain and her face turned ruddy. "NO!"

Harry felt his own tears begin to form as he gripped her by her upper arms. "Carolyn, listen to me. I have to do something very important."

"No you don't! You have to stay. You didn't see the picture I made with your boomstick."

His face screwed up in anguish. "Carolyn, I have to. I don't know if I'll be back soon, but I will come back home, okay? I'll come for you!"

She screamed in words he could barely understand through sobs, "Daddy, don't go!"

He didn't want to do it. Harry let go and turned his back on her. He saw the feeble expression on Remus's face. Carolyn leaped onto his leg and fell to the ground in an attempt to anchor him.

"Daddy, don't. Who's gonna scare the boogeyman away and check under my bed for monsters? Who's gonna hold me when we dance?"

Harry's tears tumbled down his face. His body was shaking. Why didn't Ginny do anything about her? Why was she just stnding there watching him suffer?

He quickly snatched his daughter off the ground and stormed over to Ginny.

"Take her!" he shouted with his voice cracking. "Take her!"

"Daddy, no!"

ginny held the struggling girl with a wet face. She watched him swiftly walk back to the care, ignoring his child's shrieking. In a blink of an eye his head disappeared and the car drove away.

Carolyn squirmed out of her mother's arms andran into the puddles in the cobblestone street dirtied with leaves. "Daddy!" She lifted her head up to the sky and let out a wail until fatigue caused her collapse. Ginny went to her and held her close.

"Come, baby. He will come back. He always comes back." She whispered.

As Ginny carried her daughter into the house she could not help but wonder how and eighteen year-old single mother was going to support a child without a father.

Six months passed slowly. Hardly any news cmae from Harry of Remus. It frightened Ginny terribly. She was tired of seeing her child sit miserably on the florr staring into space and hugging her Care Bear. When was he going to return? Would he return

The drawing Carolyn made was taped on the wall in the kitchen. Her daughter repeated day after day that one day her daddy would come back to see her picture.

Ron, Ginny knew, was more devasteated than she had thought before. Ever since Harry's parting with Carolyn he had softened. He wanted to embrace him like a brother the way they used to. Guilt completely iverrrided him.

She laid at night stroking the empty space in the bed and desired nothing else but to have Harry in her arms, and even marry the fool.

Ginny was washing dishes one cloudy morning when a car pulled into the front street. Carolyn was on the porch having a tea party with her Care Bear and Mr. Muffin, her plush tabby cat. The brakes screeched loudly. She paused with her breath caught in her throat: was it good news or bad?

The door opedned and a man stepped out of the car. Heappeared wounded with a sling over his right arm and terrible scabs across his face.

Ginny screamed.

Mrs. Weasley scurried into the kitchen. "What is it dear?"

"Harry!" Ginny bolted out of the room and threw open the front door. Harry stopped short and grinned weakly. "I'm home."

She ran down the steps and fiercely pulled him into an embrace. He was alive; his skin was warm and his heart beat against her chest.There was a sudden crash and they saw the tea table tossed over with a bouncy black-haired girl running toward them.

"Daddy!"

Harry ran to her and scooped the child into his good arm. Carolyn kissed him all over and tightened her grasping hold on his neck. "You came back! Daddy, you came back!"

Harry laughed. "I told you I would, little Care Bear."

Carolyn's smile faded and he felt tiny fingers stroke his face.

"Why is your face all hurt? You got lots of booboos."

"Well," he sighed. "Daddy had to get rid of a really bad boogeyman just for you. I got him so everything is okeydokey."

"Okey dokey!" she cried happily with her hands shot in the air.

"Harry," said Remus tiredly form the car. "Go with her. I'll tell the others."

His smile faded. "All right."

Carolyn scuttled down his legs and grabbed his index finger. "Come on, you have to see the picture, remember? It's on the wall."

She dragged him into the house and to the kitchen by the stove. "See? There it is. Isn't it neat?"

Harry felt a hard lump push against this throat start to choke him. He saw her sitting in front of him on the broom soaring over the house and trees with birds circling them. The sun was bright yellow with squiggly lines and a purple face. The clouds were pink.

Harry kissed the top of her head. "It's beautiful, Carolyn."

Some time later Remus finished the story of their struggle the past six months.

"He had to go to St. Mungo's?" Ginny shouted. "You didn't tell us?"

"Voldemort had not yet been defeated. I had seen the Dark Mark in the air over a cloister of trees. I panicked. When I got there I saw two bodies lying still; one was Harry lying on his stomach, and the other was an Auror who was dead. I ran up to Harry screaming, thinking he was dead as well, but I searched for a pulse and found one. His face—I can't tell you how horrible it was. He had been injured across the hairline. Blood covered his entire face and he was so stiff that I thought that I had imagined the pulse. I told myself to accept that he died. As the months went by battles occurred now and then. The final conflict happened three weeks ago."

"Were there Death Eaters?" Ron asked.

Remus shook his head. "No. They were all dead either by Voldemort or us. Even Snape died. We weren't able to save him."

He described the fight and explained how they met up, speaking carefully and slowly. Ginny held her hand over her mouth whwen he told them how many wounds Harry received.

"He never gave up, even with a broken arm and a stab wound. The cuts on his body still beld heavily but he said nothing. Harry would not allow me into the duel. It was his fight and I respected that."

"How was Voldemort murdered?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I don't even know if Harry realizes how he did it. Voldemort had wounded him enough to leave him on the ground. He used the Killing Curse, and as the green light sped toward him, I found myself screaming. There was a brightlight that blinded me, and then I heard Voldemort scream in panic. There was a painful shriek and moments later after the light vanished there was no sound. The silence frightened me."

Remus covered his eyes wearily to recount the memory. Images were blurring together and confused him. "As my vision accustomed to the darkness I saw both bodies sprawled on the ground. I thought for sure Harry was dead. There couldn't have been any possible way to survive. Voldemort was dead with his eyes open, and Harry just looked as if he was finally at rest. Blood once again ran down his face. But almost immediately I heard him sort of grunt in pain, so I rushed him to the hospital. He was barely alive, and in fact, just as we arrived Harry had stopped breathing. I had never been so frightened before in my life. But he survived, and here we are."

Ginny buried her head into her hands and fought the loud sobs that threatened to escape her. Ron rubbed her back to comfort her sadness and hung his head. His friend almost died twice in a span of six months and he thought that he still hated him.

Harry was playing with Carolyn with a new tea party upstairs in her room. The Care Bear and Mr. Muffin sat in their chairs alongside her as he sat on a pillow.

"Would you like sugar with your tea?" she asked him.

"Yes, one scoop, please." He replied. Carolyn pretended to fill his small cup and put the sugar away.

"Mr. Muffin doesn't like sugar. It makes him sick."

"Really?" he said with a laugh.

"Yep. I keep telling him no but sometimes he sneaks it because its sweet like candy. He gets a bad bellyache."

Harry chuckled and acted like he was drinking. Carolyn put her hands on her hips. "Daddy, you spilled some of your tea!"

"I did? Well, I'd better clean it up then, huh?" Harry got a napkin and mopped up the invisible mess. "There."

A knock in the doorway caought his attention. Harry looked and saw Ron stainding with a depressed look on his face.

"Can I talk to you a minute?"

Harry was quiet for a brief moment. Did he really want to after all these years?

"Yeah, sure."

He excused himself from the tea party and followed his ex-friend into an empty room. Ron closed the door silently. Harry did not say a word. If Ron wanted to talk, he was going to start it.

"Harry," he began quietly. "I know I've been a real bastard all this time. I just felt so angry that my sister was being forced to endure such a burden. I knew it wasn't your fault. I heard you yelling at the Order, but you were the one that made her pregnant. I didn't want you to leave her to fend for herself. We all knew that you could be killed at any time, and Ginny would be alone. I thought I was protecting her before it happened, but it just insulted me to see her violated. She was only fifteen."

"I know Ron," Harry whispered. Some of the anger left.

"I told Ginny how I felt after she was conceived with Carolyn. She understood but kept telling me it was going to be fine. But I've known you since the beginning of First Year and the fact that you slept with her and gave her a baby when she was just a little girl created a wall inside me."

"That was your problem." Harry retorted. "It always was. You never sorted things out or talked things through with anyone. You always thought it to be one way and refused to hear anything else. I couldn't understand why you hated me so much when you knew that if the world was to live in case I died Carolyn had to happen."

Ron hung his head painfully. " I know, okay?"

His toned softened. "I couldn't bear to talk to her during the pregnancy because I saw it as her being used against her will. I wanted to avoid Carolyn so that something like what happened six months ago would not happen. But she was my child and my responsibility and I loved her too much. And for once something loved me back."

"I saw torn you two were that day." Ron said softly. "I realized then that you were just a man that had to always fight to live and suffer to do it. You never liked being you, but you tackled it one day at a time. I even thought of killing myself after the pain I caused you in my foolishness but—" he paused. "I thought that if there was one person who had every right to kill himself but didn't was you. I'm sorry."

Harry was quiet for a second before replying. "Part of me wants to scream and shout at you and ask why everything went the way it did. But the other wants to regain a friendship that was lost. It needs to get better, not worse."

Ron's face fell in sad disappointment. Harry smiled faintly. "But you're my friend, Ron. I can't abandon you, because in our struggles at Hogwarts you were always there for me."

Ron began weeping in grief as Harry embraced his arms around his shoulders. A heavy weight seemed to lift from his heart.

Finally, after the long journey Harry found himself locked into Ginny's arms. Her skin was tender in his hands and his breath was warms against her face.

"I'm so glad to be here, you have no idea."

"I dreamed of you a lot."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You were happy in every one. Happy like you were in your Second Year. I woke up happy, but then sad when I knew that that emotion didn't last long for you."

"We can make things better," he whispered in her ear. "And Ron and I are friends again. I think I have my friend back at last."

Ginny sighed heavily. "He never did stop loving you as a brother, Harry. He just covered it up and never took it off."

There was a drastic pause that made her nervous. She hated this silence that he always gave her.

"I didn't deserve to be considered a brother," he replied bitterly. "My presence in your family made Percy become arrogant and caused your father's death. Wasn't there any time that you blamed me for it? Be honest."

Ginny sat up in bed and glared at him. "No. You had no control over what had happened, Harry. Never once had I blamed you for our problems. Percy was an arrogant git to begin with."

"I know Ron did. That's why I didn't speak out against his hate."

A single tear fell down his scarred cheek and she wiped it away. "No more tears."

"But I still hurt. Nothing feels any different."

A sudden realization struck her. He was talking in the same way he did when he wanted nothing more to do with anything.

"You promised. You promised me that day was the last."

"I know, but I hurt too much." Harry sighed miserably and felt her hand on his face.

"And like before it's just another bump in the road to run over."

**The End! (I know it rushed, sorry. It was longer, but it was a little X-rated!)**


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